Auto Parts Maker to Grow

An automotive parts manufacturer plans to expand its operations in Steuben County, IN to help support a new contract with General Motors.

Officials said on October 13 that a $8.1 million investment by Ventra Angola, which is part of Urbana, Illinois-based Flex-N-Gate, will create up to 88 new jobs by 2019.

The company, which currently employs 25 in Angola, plans to increase manufacturing capacity at its 128,000-square-foot facility at 3000 Woodhill Drive. Production of parts is expected to increase by 70 percent.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Ventra Angola up to $650,000 in conditional tax credits and up to $25,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. The city of Angola will consider additional incentives.

Ventra Angola will purchase new equipment, including roll mills, and reconfigure its operations in order to accommodate the growth. The company plans to start installing the equipment in the first quarter of 2017 and increase production in October next year.

Ventra Angola has been operating in Indiana since 1993.

Flex-N-Gate Corp. is the 10th-largest original equipment supplier in North America and the 38th-largest supplier in the world, according to Automotive News. The company employs more than 18,750 people at 55 manufacturing facilities and nine product development and engineering facilities in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Spain. In addition to its Angola facility, Flex-N-Gate operates Indiana facilities in Covington and Veedersburg.

“Our company is proud to operate three plants in Indiana, all of them thriving, and there is no question the best days for our Ventra operation in Angola are just ahead,” Bill Beistline, vice president of procurement at Flex-N-Gate, said in a statement.